4 terrific films fill Jewish Film Festival

Reviews

November 20, 2009|By Roger Moore, Sentinel Movie Critic

Year in, year out, the Central Florida Jewish Film Festival consistently offers the best lineup of movies, top-to-bottom, of any Central Florida film festival. The 2009 edition, this Sunday and Monday at the Enzian Theater, is no exception -- with a pair of "ticking clock" thrillers, a heartwarming coming-of-age picture and a hilarious obese-Israelis-learn-to-love-the-sumo comedy.

The Little Traitor *** (11 a.m. Nov. 22) Lynn Roth's warm, intimate film of an Amos Oz novel is set in 1947 Palestine, with Israeli settlers trying to terrorize the British out of the troubled land so that they can declare Israel a Jewish state. Ido Port plays the son of parents who run a safe house for Israeli terrorists on the run, a boy who absorbs their antipathy for the Brits. But Porfy's plans to make his own bomb to wreck a British truck are derailed when he meets a kindly British sergeant (Alfred Molina) who teaches the kid about life (and girls) while the boy instructs him in a little Hebrew. In English and Hebrew, with English subtitles.

For My Father *** 1/2 (1:30 p.m. Nov. 22) A Palestinian soccer player is sent to Tel Aviv to blow himself up to pay some political debt his father owes in this harrowing but touching drama about the current state of the conflict. Tarek (Shredi Jabarin) is resigned to his fate, accepting the "because we have no air force" rationale for suicide bombers that his handlers give him. Then, the detonator fails, and he is stuck, waiting for a replacement switch from a kindly electronic repair man. And he meets a lovely Israeli girl (Hili Yalon) who is having trouble with the local ultra-orthodox bullies. Dror Zahavi's spare, smart and tautly directed film is a simple yet nuanced look at people divided by religion but united by everything else. In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.

The Debt ***1/2 (4:15 p.m. Nov. 23) In the 1960s, a team of Israeli commandos nabbed and "took care of" the Nazi war criminal, "The Surgeon of Birkenau." Thirty years later, these now-aged men and woman learn that somebody is in Kiev, in a retirement home, calling himself that surgeon. Did they kill the wrong man? Did they lie about catching and killing him? Using flashbacks and present-day preparations (they're no longer agents, so planning a "hit" is complicated), director Assaf Bernstein gives away his secrets grudgingly in this superior thriller about elderly secret agents setting out to take care of unfinished business, or cover up a mistake. In Hebrew with English subtitles.

A Matter of Size ***1/2 (6:45 p.m. Nov. 23) Herzl (Itzik Cohen) has always been teased about his weight. An Israeli chef, he's lonely, lives with his "Eat, EAT" mom and attends weight-loss meetings that are downright abusive. Then, he lands a new job at a Japanese restaurant, and watching TV from "back home" with the waiters, he sees fat people who are revered -- the sumo wrestlers of Japan.

"How come there's no sumo in Israel," he wants to know. "There's no fat people in Israel."

Yeah, right. Herzl talks some friends into joining him, talks his Japanese boss (Togo Igawa) into teaching them sumo and forms a team. Will it get in the way of his first real romance? This adorable romantic comedy is in Hebrew, Japanese and English, with subtitles.